SEPT. 25 ISSUE ANSWERS: As Joan Beringer wrote in her 1823 record of the Finch family’s trip to Romeo, in February, Albert Finch, his daughter Harriet and son Sylvester took a challenging trip from northern New York to Detroit with a sled pulled by an ox. Why would they use an ox to pull the sled? First I had to find out what an ox was. An ox seems to be a human creation. First you take a bull which is an excitable, maybe frisky animal and then modify it. By removing certain parts of its anatomy, the bull becomes an ox that seems to lose its enthusiasm for life’s adventures. The ox is more likely to be mild mannered and willing to cooperate with its master. The ox is easier and cheaper to feed. The farmer can feed an ox on low quality feed. Poor quality grasses that might injury a horse might be a delicacy to an ox. Both horses and oxen have a similar useful life span, but when a farmer can’t get any more use of these critters, he can slaughter the ox and enjoy the meat. Most individuals don’t care for horse meat. So there is a potential pay back on the farmer’s investment.